2011 in retrospect

I was just thinking how quickly a year goes by. Actually I can’t even recall a decade sometimes. It feels like just yesterday that I left Nepal to come to Australia and that was more than a decade ago. I still remember the time in Tribhuvan International Airport, in Kathmandu where I stood for the last time with my friends and family before I took a flight to come to this new place. It seems funny when I think of it now that I had 40+ people there to bid me farewell. I had my parents, my brother, my aunties, my uncles, my cousins ( with the little ones crying ), my friends from school (among them was AS, my husband who had no idea at that time that he would marry me one day) and a few other friends . If I think about it now I feel happy that there were so many nice people in my life who cared about me and came to see me off. Time just flies and life goes by. I just want to take a moment and reflect on my year 2011 today.

The year started with AS and me being together for our first New Year celebration. It was really a wonderful experience to have him in my life, living together and planning our life together. I am so sure now that was what I was missing before he came to my life again. I just loved the feeling of togetherness and unconditional love we have for each other. Even though we have lots of adjustments to make in our individual lives to be with each other, it all seemed like worthy sacrifice when I look at it from this point of view.

I think the first half of my year I was just busy planning for the next stage of our life, our wedding. There were so many ups and downs in the planning. There were stages where I was so frustrated with people that I thought the wedding wasn’t happening as I wanted it to happen. And there were those highs when we talked to our parents about the wedding and saw all their excitement in the preparation of the wedding. Even thinking about it now has my head spinning. All I was thinking about was my dresses, wedding venues, photographer, decorations, food and the list keeps growing longer. It was basically a never-ending list of things to do which only ended after the wedding. I think all is well if it ends well. So this year I became MRS from MISS.

Also our honeymoon to Vietnam was the highlight of this year. It was a great place to just relax and see beautiful places. Wonderful memories are flooding my brain now 🙂 . I think June 2011 was the best time of my life so far and will always be in my memory as one of the most important time of my life.

I also got a new family this year i.e. my in-laws. It is really nice to have more people who care about you and look after you. I am really happy that my MIL, FIL and BILs are great people who have accepted me in their home as their own. I feel lucky that we get along well together and now I have a new family who will have a big part in my future. I have lots of cousins from his family side who called me sister-in-law (I feel so old when they call me that but I need to get used to it 🙂 )

Last year, one of my cousins got married and one of my good friends got married too. Both ceremonies took place in Nepal so I missed it but I am really happy to see them happily married to the love of their lives.

Two of my cousins had babies this year. Both had a baby boy and they are growing up so fast. They are in the US so I haven’t had a chance to meet them yet but I just love all their photos in Facebook. Hope I get to meet them soon.

Also two of my friends had December babies, a boy and a girl as I wrote in a post. They are just cute, adorable, beautiful babies.

I learnt to cook in 2011. Last year me and AS started living together on our own so I didn’t have much choice but to learn how to cook a few simple meals as surviving on take away was impossible. I suprised myself that I can cook some good meals and follow recipes to have something decent on the plate. I should probably say that I became a responsible woman from a headstrong girl 🙂

Also in 2011, for the first time in our lives, both of us fasted together for a Puja ceremony in Nepal before our wedding. I was so glad that AS joined the bandwagon of fasting at my house where my mum had organised a big Puja to bless our wedding. It was kind of nice to see him support me in the traditional aspect of our life.

I managed to tick a few items off my bucket list as well. We travelled to New Zealand, Vietnam and Vanuatu so my list of placed to visit have shrunk a bit. I can cross abseiling and black water rafting off my list as well.

How can I forget to mention that in 2011 I started blogging too? Nepaliaustralian was born in September 2011 and has been growing since then. I think it is one of the good decisions I ever made. It has given me a platform to share my ideas, thoughts and rant sometimes about the issues and topics that has affected my life. I also got to meet really nice people who share similar opinions and I got to read their blogs filled with creative ideas. Thank you everyone for making me feel welcome in this blogosphere. Also thank you to those who awarded me various awards . I am honoured to receive 7 awards last year.

There were a few bad news last year. My aunty was diagnosed with breast cancer which is a first in both sides of the family. It was kind of shock to everyone but she is getting a treatment right now and it looks good and she is recovering well. Just want her to be normal soon.

My best friend’s dad passed away and I feel bad that I was not with her when she needed me. I am glad she had her family and her fiancé with her at that time. Hope to meet her soon.

It seems like so much has happened but at the same time I feel that everything happened yesterday. I hope 2012 has lots of good thing in store for me and I want to live this year happily without worrying about stuff that I have no control over (like I always do).

Wishing all of you a great 2012 and hope this year all your wishes come true. Be happy everyone!!!